Take trauma out of gift-opening

LYNDA SHRAGER

Updated 4:07 pm, Friday, December 21, 2012

In a few days Santa will have come and gone.

Your kid is looking at you with wide-eyed anticipation. You pick up his new present and start opening it, pulling to no avail, at the blister bubble pack. Sticking your fingernail between the plastic and the cardboard results only in one of your freshly manicured nails hanging sideways.

Calmly, you reach for the scissors, which, of course, fail to cut through the packaging. Out comes the utility knife as your kid becomes increasingly more anxious. The knife slips and you cut yourself. Now you're mad and don't care if you open it neatly in case it has to go back.Out comes the cleaver as you declare war on this innocent defenseless toy.

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When you finally destroy the blister pack, you think you've won and your kid will stop crying. Then you see them; 32 twist ties forever securing the toy to the cardboard.

This scenario has an official name: "Wrap rage." It is the term used for the heightened level of anger and frustration caused by trying to open packaging, particularly plastic blister packs and clamshells.

In our fits of rage we probably don't wonder or care why manufacturers insist on encasing toys, electronics and other items in "clamshells" or "oysters" as they are often called. They are not trying to torture us. Instead they are trying to protect the package during shipping, preventing it from being opened and the item stolen from store shelves and making it child-resistant. These factors help reduce our overall cost when we finally arrive at the cash register.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission reports an average of 6,000 people a year suffer "packaging related injuries." These include many lacerations and puncture injuries. Since 2007, Consumer Reports magazine has presented Oyster Awards to the products with the hardest-to-open packaging. Consumers reported cut and bloodied arms, hands and fingers from using pliers, bolt cutters, military issue can openers and hacksaws to name a few.

In 2008, when I first wrote about this issue, Amazon, the nation's largest online retail store began a Frustration-Free Packaging initiative. Back then, there were only 19 items from companies including Mattel and Microsoft. This number has grown to 80,000 products. Last year, Wal-Mart joined Amazon in its efforts to encourage manufacturers to produce user-friendly packaging that is created with recycled or sustainable materials.

So what are we to do when the kid has lost it and we are bleeding all over the mistletoe or last week's Hanukkah gelt? Mom's Rx is to find easier-to-open packaging that will decrease stress, high blood pressure and temper tantrums:

• Look for new packaging, including user-friendly clamshell packages with special types of plastic that protect the product but use paperboard for the rest to eliminate the plastic shards that can also cause injuries.

• An added plus is that we are helping the environment by buying products that utilize simpler packaging that eliminates plastic-coated wire ties and corrugated package inserts.

• Look for products such as "Open It," which has various blades for cutting clamshells, tools for snipping twist ties and blades for slicing open CDs and DVDs. They are sold at Bed Bath & Beyond or go to www.buyopenit.com